Researchers at Harvard School of Public health in Boston found that while eating white rice increased a person's risk of type-2 diabetes, brown rice had the opposite effect and reduced the likelihood of them developing the condition.

Wholegrain rice raises the body's blood sugar levels far less dramatically than white rice, which is little more than starch, according to researchers.

Their study, believed to be the first of its kind, found that replacing 50g (1.8oz), or a third of a serving, of white rice per day with brown rice cut the risk of type-2 diabetes by 16 per cent.

Study Details

The Harvard scientists studied the diets of more than 190,000 men and women.

After adjusting for age and other lifestyle and dietary risk factors, they found that those who consumed five or more servings of white rice per week had a 17 per cent increased risk of diabetes compared with those who had no more than one serving per month.

The study author wrote:

"The high glycemic index of white rice consumption is likely to be the consequence of disrupting the physical and botanical structure of ricegrains during the refining process - in which almost all the bran and some of the germ are removed.